Montreal Canadiens: Shea Weber Injury Final Nail In Habs Coffin

The Montreal Canadiens continue to hang around the fringes of the Eastern Conference playoff chase. With Shea Weber out 4-6 weeks, the chances of them getting into the playoffs are gone.

The Montreal Canadiens continue to hang around the outside of the Eastern Conference playoff picture. They have had a very Jekyll and Hyde act going on all season with long stretches of good play followed immediately by lengthy losing streaks.

The Habs began the season 11-5-3 and were near the top of the conference standings. Then they lost eight games in a row. Then the Habs turned it around and went 7-3-0 over their next ten games. Then came the second losing streak of eight games. Then they went 9-3-0 on their next 12 game stretch.

So, the Habs season can basically be boiled down to three strong stretches of play that lasted ten games or more, but with two eight game losing streaks stuck right in the middle. If the team was great, it wouldn’t lose eight in a row on two separate occasions. If they were awful, they couldn’t have three separate runs where they had an impressive record.

So where does that leave them? Well, entering last night’s game they were seven points back of a playoff spot. This gives them absolutely no margin for error over the final 23 games on the calendar. They would need everyone getting healthy and playing well if they can extend their recent solid play over the final two months of the regular season.

Unfortunately, that’s not going to happen. At least not the healthy part. It was announced yesterday that Shea Weber’s injury is an ankle sprain that is going to keep him out of the lineup for 4-6 weeks. Even if it the lower end of that spectrum, Weber is going to miss a dozen games at a very important time on their schedule.

This Habs team doesn’t have the depth to deal with an injury to one of their top players, especially on defence. The Habs battled through long-term injuries to Paul Byron and Jonathan Drouin with Joel Armia and Brendan Gallagher also going down for shorter periods of time. They were far from perfect, but played well enough at times without all of those forwards to stay within shouting distance of the postseason.

What the Canadiens haven’t been forced to do yet this season is play an extended period without one of their top defensemen. The Canadiens lean heavily on the trio of Shea Weber, Jeff Petry and Ben Chiarot to eat minutes on the blue line and would sorely miss any of those three. Weber being the team captain and a force in all situations might be the most difficult player to replace in their lineup.

Weber is 12th in the NHL and leads the Canadiens in average time on ice per game, playing 24:18 per contest at the age of 34. Weber is actually third, behind Petry and Chiarot in even strength ice time for Montreal, is fifth in power play ice time as he runs the top unit and he is the leader in minutes on the team while shorthanded.

There is a huge gap from those three defenders to the fourth most utilized blue liner in Montreal. Marco Scandella ranks fourth on the team in average ice time per game among defenders, but he plays 5:45 less than Chiarot who ranks third.

That means a lot of minutes are going to be distributed to players like Victor Mete, Brett Kulak and Scandella who play less than 18 on a nightly basis. Also, Xavier Ouellet is up from the minors to play a third pairing role and fill in the roster spot that was vacated by Weber.

This leaves the Canadiens defence extraordinarily thin. They already leaned too heavily on three guys and didn’t have the depth to keep up with the top teams in the east while everyone was healthy. Now, they have lost their most trusted defender.

It is simply too much for a team that lacks depth to overcome. The odds of the Canadiens being able to climb into the postseason this season were already microscopic. Without their captain, ice time leader and best defensive option on the blue line, the Habs just don’t have the pieces to go on a good enough run to get into the postseason.

The Canadiens need to get more points than the Panthers and Maple Leafs in less games to qualify for the postseason. They haven’t been able to quite keep up with them with Weber in the lineup. Without him, they really don’t have a chance of getting into the playoffs.